Another View: Former P&G CEO faces challenge with VA

When the VA scandal erupted this spring, the problems first seemed isolated to Phoenix, where veterans were dying while they waited for months to see doctors, and workers manipulated data to cover up the waits.

But the more investigators dug into the agency tasked with caring for the nation's veterans, the more widespread and systemic the failings appeared. Inquiries have spread to 77 Department of Veterans Affairs facilities.

On Friday, the White House issued a broadly damning report on the VA, all the more remarkable considering that the administration has been in charge of the agency for the past six years. And now, President Obama has selected a man to clean up the mess.

Robert "Bob" McDonald, a West Point graduate and the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble, lacks experience in health care, which surely will slow him down. But his experience running a sprawling, private-sector institution should give him an edge over the succession of military commanders and career bureaucrats who have headed the troubled agency. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald will need every ounce of his reputed managerial abilities to turn around the VA's vast national network of 1,700 hospitals, clinics and other facilities.

Congress, which is scrambling to devise a quick solution after years of neglect, might be better advised to lend emergency help while demanding that the new secretary submit an overhaul plan for its review later this year.

Simply throwing more money at the problems won't do the job. Separate House and Senate measures would cost at least $35 billion over the next two years, a roughly one-third increase in VA health spending.

Nor is it clear that the congressional plans, which would push more veterans to private providers to lighten the load at the VA, add up to anything more than trading one set of problems for another.

It's unclear whether the private sector can absorb the new patients.

Lawmakers may be overlooking a speedier and smoother solution to the current backlog. Last fall, the VA signed contracts with two private networks to provide specialists for veterans who can't be accommodated at VA facilities. Both networks have geared up to help with backlogs. But their contracts do not include providing primary care - the VA's most pressing need. It's hard to understand why.

Longer term, McDonald's nomination is a chance to address the big issues facing an institution that does some excellent medical work but has an entrenched bureaucracy that has proved impervious to change. In the heat of a scandal, Congress' inclination is to make big moves fast. At the VA, the ailments can't all be fixed by emergency surgery.

USA Today

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Another View: Former P&G CEO faces challenge with VA

When the VA scandal erupted this spring, the problems first seemed isolated to Phoenix, where veterans were dying while they waited for months to see doctors, and workers manipulated data to cover up